SACRED MUSIC HOURS. SPRING SEA

DOZAN FUJIWARA
(shakuhachi, Japan)
JOJI MURASAWA
(koto, shamisen, shakuhachi, Japan)

Concert partner – Japan Foundation

Do you know what unites Japan and Lithuania? A love of nature.

The spring sea, the nightingale’s song, nesting cranes – the titles of musical works sound like poems in themselves. And this is no accident: traditional Japanese music was born of observations of nature, of the desire to convey its sounds, rhythm and breathing.

Masters in traditional Japanese music are coming to Vilnius. Dozan Fujiwara is one of the most outstanding personalities in contemporary Japanese music, the highest-ranked master of the Tozan School, he has been forming the contemporary sound of the shakuhachi for 25 years. He began playing this instrument with the legendary Hozan Yamamoto – Japan’s living national treasure.

Joji Murasawa – a doctor in music from the Tokyo University of the Arts and a Grand Master of the Tozan School – is one of few performers to have equally mastered several Japanese instruments – the koto, shakuhachi and shamisen. He is renowned for giving a concert for the Imperial Family on the occasion of completing his studies.

At the centre of this evening’s programme is the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute whose sound reminds us of breathing more than a regular melody. In addition, we will hear the koto (a Japanese stringed instrument) and the shamisen (a three-stringed lute), creating a subtle though highly expressive soundscape.

The programme will feature Michio Miyagi’s “Haru no Umi” (Spring sea), “Uguisu” (Nightingale), and the Tozan School’s work “Tsuru no Sugomori (In the cranes nest) as well as other opuses. Even if this music was born on the other side of the world, it unexpectedly resonates with our Lithuanian sensibilities – that which resides in our songs, our sense of seasonal change and appreciation of silence.

Come and enjoy Japan’s landscapes in the heart of Vilnius.

Programme features music by Michio Miyagi and traditional Japanese music

Free admission